Wenger offers positive injury update on Coquelin & Welbeck

Arsenal have been handed a double injury boost with Arsene Wenger confirming that Francis Coquelin and Danny Welbeck are set to return to training.

Coquelin has been on the sidelined since damaging knee ligaments against West Brom in November and the midfielder was initially not due back until the end of February at the earliest.

However, the 24-year-old has been making a speedy recovery in recent weeks and is now well ahead of schedule, with Wenger confirming this morning that Coquelin is set to resume first team training today.

The boss doesn’t give any indication as to how long it will be before Coquelin is ready to make his playing return but I suspect he’ll need a couple of weeks full training before he’ll be under consideration.

It will be a HUGE boost to have Coquelin available again as he’s been sorely missed over the past eight weeks and with Mohamed Elneny also on board, we’ll have some real depth in the holding role during the second half of the season.

There is also some positive news on Welbeck as the attacker is set to finally make his return to training next week after eight months out with a knee injury.

Welbeck suffered the injury back in April and after struggling to overcome what was initially thought to be a minor issue, the 25-year-old was eventually forced to undergo an operation in September.

Speaking at his press conference this morning, Wenger is quoted as saying by London24:

“Coquelin is back in training today, he is ahead of schedule,”

“Welbeck will be back next week. Rosicky will play tomorrow night with the under-21s.”

I expect it will be a few weeks before Danny will be available after such a long spell on the sidelines but again it’s going to be a huge boost to have him back for the business end of the season.

So we should have two key players available inside the next 2-3 weeks and with Rosicky also on the comeback trail, our squad is going to look a lot stronger very soon.